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Sadhana Smiles

Sadhana Smiles is a disruptor and thought leader. Sadhana is Chief Executive Officer of
Harcourts Victoria and has a proven career built on strong leadership and
highly effective people skills. As a speaker Sadhana is both engaging and entertaining and takes you on a journey - what you see is what you get.

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Testimonials for Sadhana Smiles

We asked Sadhana to present the opening keynote at our National Franchise Operations Conference to 130 franchisor executives. This was a tough audience as they are her peers. Sadhana delivered a clear, powerful and engaging session. Her slides were informative, her stage presence was highly credible, and her message combined outstanding business and personal development lessons. The audience rated her in an extremely positive manner. She added great value to our conference and I would highly recommend her as a keynote presenter for any conference.

CFE Founder Franchise Relationships Institute

I had the pleasure and honour of hearing Sadhana Smiles speak recently at the Australian Women in Business Summit and it was honestly nothing short of life changing. He fresh approach delivered a focus on being real and authentic with engaging content and a feisty driven and empowering attitude. Her talk filled the room with a captivating energy and I felt like everyone could really relate to her on so many levels because she was so 'real' in her delivery. I've seen a lot of speakers of the years and Sadhana is definitely one I'll never forget.

DIRECTOR Ka'llure Jewellery

Sadhana Smiles is one of our most popular speakers, with attendees at events across Australia frequently singling out her presentation as being insightful, engaging, relevant, relatable, and a highlight of the event. Sadhana’s presentation both inspires attendees to want to aim for higher levels of leadership within their own lives while providing practical advice to help them achieve their goals.

Senior Event Manager, Women & Leadership Australia

Sadhana Smiles Travels from VIC
Fee Range: :$5001 to $10000

Sadhana Smiles's Biography

Sadhana Smiles is Chief Executive Officer of Harcourts Group Victoria, the state division of one of Australia’s leading, well respected and fastest growing real estate brands.

She is one of only two female CEO’s in her sector which is commonly referred to as the “boy’s club”.

Starting her career as a receptionist Sadhana has created a brand that has placed her amongst her peers as a thought leader, industry commentator, corporate activist and a contemporary feminist.

Under her leadership, Harcourts Victoria is:

one of the leading business units globally within the group

the fastest growing franchise group in Victoria

consistently increasing their market share

most recognised, most quoted and most heard brand

With a focus on performance and satisfaction Sadhana has doubled their EBIT over the last two years and increased franchisee satisfaction, sitting at 96th percentile in the sector benchmark.

All this in an industry that has the 2nd worst pay gap and one where some of her male counterparts have labelled her just about everything a woman can be. “I am a coloured woman playing in a male dominated industry, earning my seat at the table through my results. Numbers never lie.” She is passionate about the issues of violence against women and diversity - “our workplaces must reflect the communities we work in”

In 2012 she bought Walk a Mile in their shoes to Victoria, this is now a national event for the Harcourts Group with over 1000 men and women walking in high heels, raising money for White Ribbon and making a clear statement that violence towards women is not OK.
The group has raised over $300K for White Ribbon and funded over 100,000 students to participate in the award winning ‘breaking the silence program’ teaching the youth about respectful relationships.

She is also working with various organisations in Australia to highlight the issue of dowry deaths of Indian women and the violence some of them face in Australia post their arranged marriages.

In 2013 Sadhana published her first book – People Power – did you have them @ hello, a step by step guide to developing and managing performance driven teams. In 2016 published a self help journal for women based on her own experiences – I want what she’s having.
In 2013 Sadhana was named the Victorian Telstra Business Women of the Year, as well as the winner of the Victorian Telstra Private Corporate Sector award.

In 2016 Sadhana was named one of 100 women of Influence in Australia. AFR/WBC sponsored award.

Sadhana is the founder of Links Fiji, a not for profit, with a focus on conducting pap smears for women in rural areas of Fiji and reducing the incidence of cervical cancer.

A single mum to nine kids, Sadhana’ s drive comes from her desire to leave the world she influences a better place. Sadhana has earned a reputation as a popular speaker and presenter, regularly asked to present at some of the industry’s most prestigious events, Women’s Conference and many franchise conferences.

Speaking Topics Include

Stilettoes in Business

What does it take to inspire people, develop a positive workplace culture and nurture the next generation of leaders?
Leaders today are leading in what is the fastest pace of change ever, the shifting needs of 5 generations in the workplace, the disruption that is impacting many industries, globalisation, socialisation, distribution of our workforce, diversity and equality are just a few of the challenges we need to overcome.
Stilettoes in Business is not about a woman leading a brand, it is about how you as a leader can create a culture within your organization that people want to belong to.
In 2012 Sadhana set in motion an event that would have a national positive impact on the culture of the company.
In this session she shares with you how as a leader she took the issue of domestic violence against women, created a cause that nationally the network connected with and now has over 1000 men and women, walking in high heels, raising awareness and making a clear statement that violence against women is not OK. The impact on the culture of Harcourts as a group has been phenomenal.
Her question to you as a leader is would you be able to have men and women in your organization put on high heels and walk a mile for a cause that is dark and edgy.
Her success as a leader is not just measured in the legacy she will leave behind but also in how she has driven the Harcourts brand in Victoria to be the most recognized and fastest growing.
If you are an emerging leader, your business needs to make significant changes or you simply want to hear from another inspiring leader then Stilettoes in Business is this session for you.

I want what she’s having

In this session Sadhana will
inspire you as she candidly shares her journey about the day she decided
becoming CEO was one of her career goals and winning the ‘Telstra Award’ was a
personal one; how success in the corporate world is as important as balancing
social corporate responsibility and giving back to her birth place, how he
choice to divorce took her relationship with her kids to the brink and how
finding herself in a dark hole opened up the opportunity to rebuild her life
and paint her own picture.

Sadhana often quotes that she is
born in a glass box, where a culturally oppressive childhood prepared her for
the ‘glass ceilings’ of the western world.

This session will make you
laugh, it will make you cry and it will inspire you to write your goals, place
them on the shower wall and believe that you can have everything – it is just a
matter of how?

Talk of the town

In every business Sadhana Smiles has led, it has seen significant
growth regardless of the market.‘Invest
in your business in the ‘dip’ and you will become the talke of the town in the
‘rise’, she says.

As well as winning the Telstra Victoria Business Women for 2013,
Sadhana won the Telstra Private Corporate Sector Award Victoria 2013 which
shines a light on her ability to take business objectives and turn them into
deliverables, a tangible strength possessed by few.

In this energetic, fast paced, ideas filled session, Sadhana will
share with you the key areas you need to focus on, how you engage your
stakeholders, how to manager dynamic cultural change and how you can become the
talk of the town.

This session is designed for business owners, franchisors,
franchisees, and leadership/management teams.

People Power

Recruitment, retention and
engagement have always been key issues and in 2013 Sadhana decided to write a
book to help business owners and managers not only to manage their teams better
but become employers of choice.

Sadhana will take you through
the employee life cycle, overcoming challenges we may face with ‘people
management’ and some simple yet engaging ways to ensure that your people are engaged
with your business.

This session is designed for and
relevant to business owners or managers who are directly responsible for the
‘growth’ of people and recruitment.